R 165

2003 -- H 6366

Enacted 04/29/03

H O U S E R E S O L U T I O N

COMMEMORATING THE VICTIMS OF THE HOLOCAUST

Introduced By: Representatives Lewiss, Long, Fox, Crowley, and Laroche

Date Introduced: April 29, 2003

     WHEREAS, Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom Hashoah), commemorated on April

29th, 2003, is a solemn day of remembrance honoring the victims of the Holocaust and those who

showed resistance and heroism during this horrendous period in world history. This year the

theme is focused on “Children and the Holocaust,” over 1.5 million of whom, from across

Europe, were murdered as a direct result of Nazi racial policies; and

     WHEREAS, The Holocaust is the term used to refer to the period in history from 1933 to

1945, before and during World War II, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazis systemically persecuted

and murdered nearly six million Jews and another five million non-Jews throughout Europe

because they perceived these people to be “racially inferior,” and were “life unworthy of life”;

and

     WHEREAS, The horror and anguish of such infamous killing grounds as Auschwitz,

Buchenwald, Dachau and Belson, which today house the unnatural quiet and ghostly calm of the

somber rows of sanitized barracks and rusting ovens, stand as mute memorials to the six million

Jews and eleven million total victims who succumbed to the deliberate Nazi program of genocide

known as the Holocaust; and

     WHEREAS, The citizens of Rhode Island, having a rich heritage of resistance and

intolerance for those who would trample individual liberty and dignity, applaud the courageous

efforts of the ghetto residents for whom day to day survival was a relentless struggle. Their brave

actions in April and May of 1943 stand as testimony to a rare and indomitable human spirit and

extraordinary courage exhibited in the darkest hours of man’s inhumanity; now, therefore be it

     RESOLVED, That this House of Representatives of the State of Rhode Island and

Providence Plantations hereby honors the victims of the Holocaust and calls upon our fellow

citizens to join us in reaffirming our pledge to work to eradicate bigotry, prejudice, brutality and

injustice through education and vigilance; and be it further

     RESOLVED, That the Secretary of State be and he hereby is authorized and directed to

transmit duly certified copies of this resolution to the United States Holocaust Museum, the

Rhode Island Holocaust Museum, the Jewish Federation of Rhode Island and the Jewish

Community Center of Rhode Island.

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LC03092

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